US Treasury targets networks supporting Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF
The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on Friday against eight individuals and entities, including an Indian national and a Chhattisgarh-based explosives manufacturer, for their alleged roles in procurement and recruitment networks that have prolonged Sudan's civil war. The sanctions target both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which Washington says have exacerbated one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Indian national and company designated
Among those designated are Indian national Alok Choudhari, Chief Executive Officer of SBL Energy Limited, based in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and the company itself. The Treasury Department alleged that SBL Energy supplied explosives and explosives-related materiel to Sudan-based Target Multiactivities Company Ltd (TMAC), a company controlled by Sudan's Defence Industries System (DIS) through Giad Industrial Group, both previously sanctioned by the US. According to OFAC, the explosives were subsequently used in bombs deployed by the SAF.
"SBL, whose chief executive officer is Indian national Alok Choudhari, has supplied TMAC with over 200 shipments of explosives and explosives-related materiel since 2024," the Treasury statement said. OFAC designated SBL Energy under Executive Order 14098 for allegedly providing material support to TMAC, while Choudhari was sanctioned in his capacity as the company's CEO.
Broader sanctions package includes Sudan firms and Colombian recruiters
The sanctions package also includes Sudan-based firms Target Multiactivities Company Ltd and Ports Engineering Company Ltd, Sudanese national Tariq Hussain Muhammad Madani, and three individuals from Panama and Colombia linked to an alleged recruitment network accused of facilitating the deployment of former Colombian military personnel to fight for the RSF.
Following the announcement, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration remained committed to advancing peace in Sudan. "The networks profiting from the conflict in Sudan jeopardise the prospects for the humanitarian truce that the Sudanese people desperately need," Bessent said.
US calls for humanitarian truce and cessation of external support
The US also called on the SAF and the RSF to accept an immediate, unconditional three-month humanitarian truce and urged external actors to cease all financial and military support to the parties involved in the conflict. Under the sanctions, all property and interests in property of the designated individuals and entities within the United States or under the control of US persons are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving them.
